The road was closed Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. by Virginia Beach Public Works after an inspection revealed corrosion of a structural piece of the bridge that reduced its load capacity.

"What we are going to end up doing is we are going to go in and weld a steel plate to that beam to help support the load," Public Works Operations Management Administrator Phillip Koetter told NewsChannel 3's Todd Corillo on Thursday.

Repair work was started early Thursday afternoon by Earley Marine. The city says they repaired the transfer beams and installed new steel plates and bolts. Crews were able to complete the work Thursday evening and the road was reopened on Friday after the repairs were inspected.

Load restrictions are the same as they were before the repairs: no overweight or oversized loads.

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The Elbow Road Bridge is one of five that is inspected every year, as opposed to every two years as state and federal regulations require.

"Some of the bridges, due to the condition of the bridge and the age of the bridge, we put on a yearly cycle so we can keep an eye on them so we can find things like this before they get too bad,"
Koetter explained.

The other four in Virginia Beach that are inspected annually are on Laskin Road, Sandbridge Road and the two spans of the current Lesner Bridge.